Hold the phone. I just found out you can regrow food in water without dirt. Could gardening get any better when you have two black thumbs?
I think not. And my black thumbs aren’t the only reason I’ve been hesitant to garden. It can be costly too, but ever since I found ways to water my garden for free, I’m all over it.
Then my step-mom showed me how to regrow food in water – she had a couple heads of lettuce in a bowl in her kitchen. But as it turns out, it’s just one of several veggies that can grow without dirt, and without much effort too.
It’s great news for those buying organic vegetables, but even if you aren’t, it’s a simple way to stretch those grocery dollars just a teeny bit further is to regrow food in water!
Why Should You Regrow Food in Water?
There are plenty of reasons to regrow food, but the most important ones to me are:
(1) It’s absolutely free.
You already bought the vegetable. All it costs is a few tablespoons of water – but if you’re smart about it, you can re-use water you’ve already used elsewhere, like from boiling pasta or water that you collected while waiting for the shower to get hot. Then it wouldn’t cost you a dime!
(2) It’ll trim your grocery budget.
Little ways to save money really do add up to bigger savings, as long as you’re diligent about using them.
Now, you won’t get a huge harvest out of any of these items, but it is still food and every little bit helps. Even if it’s a few leaves of lettuce to scoop your tuna salad with, you can regrow food you didn’t have before and won’t have to buy.
(3) It makes organics more affordable.
Affording organic food just got easier! If you start with organic food, you’ll regrow food that’s organic… so you’ll reap the benefits of organic greens without actually paying for them!
(4) It’s easy.
Do I have to explain further? I mean, stick the plant in water and watch it grow. Really – it’s that easy!
I’ve listed below all the vegetables that can legitimately grow in water and water alone.
Sure, there are plenty more that can START in water and then be transplanted to soil. And yes, beans will sprout in water too – but unless the vegetable will grow into more vegetable that can be eaten as-is with only a cup of water, I kept it off this list.
General Guidelines to Regrow Food in Water
- You don’t need a lot of water – just enough to cover the roots. About 1/2″ of water seems to be sufficient otherwise the food can get moldy and slimy.
- Be sure to check the water every 2-3 days to ensure that A) there’s enough water, and B) no rogue lettuce pieces fall off and slime up your bowl.
- The size of container should be relative to the size of the food you’re growing. Lettuce and celery grows best in shallow bowls like these. Green onion and lemongrass can be in taller, skinny glasses like these.
- You can regrow multiples of the same plant as long as you’re not overcrowding the area.
- I haven’t tried this myself, but using a fertilizer could help with the yield when you regrow food – especially if this is more than a fun side project. I would recommend this Dr. Earth organic liquid fertilizer or a hydroponic fertilizer.
10 Ways to Regrow Food in Water
Bok Choy
Cut off the bottom of the stalk and place in a small bowl of water. New growth begins from the center in 1-2 days with significant growth in less than a week!
Cabbage
Place the root end in a shallow bowl of water and watch it regrow from the center. Be sure to harvest on the smaller side to get the best flavor.
Carrot Greens
You can’t regrow an actual carrot, but you can regrow the carrot tops! Place the cut-off end of a carrot in a shallow bowl of water. Harvest the greens as they grow and add to salads. Better yet, make this amazing carrot top pesto and stop spending money on store-bought!
Celery
Cut off the bottom 2″ of the stalk and place in a small bowl of water. New growth begins from the center in 3-4 days. It might take awhile for a full stalk of celery to grow, but you’ll get great growth in the center for flavoring dishes. If you don’t know what to do with the leaves, dehydrate them, and make your own dried celery powder.
Fennel
Cut off the bottom 1″ of the base so that the roots are intact and place in a small bowl of water.
Garlic Chives
Garlic chives are the green that grows from a clove of garlic and can be added to dishes that traditionally call for green onion chives like salads and baked potatoes. Place a garlic clove in a small cup and add water to the bottom without submerging. Roots will grow in a few days and shoots will grow shortly after!
Tip: Garlic starts to lose it pungent flavor when the shoots grow, so if you find a rogue clove in your fridge or pantry starting to shoot, place it in a cup of water to grow chives instead of throwing the clove away!
Green Onion
Keep the white part of the onion with any roots that are in still intact. Place in a glass with water and you’ll have a never-ending supply of fresh green onion!
Leeks
Cut off the bottom 2-3″ of the stalk and place in a cup of water. New growth will come from the center of the plant. Usually only the green part of the leek is used in cooking, but it can be used interchangeably with onions for a delicious, mellow flavor.
Lemongrass
Cut off 2-3″ from the bottom and place in a tall container with 1/2″ or so of water. New lemongrass shoots will grow from the center.
Lettuce
Cut off the bottom of the head of lettuce and place it in a small bowl of water. New growth begins from the center of the in as little as 3 days and you’ll have a new half-head of lettuce in about 2 weeks. I’ve heard romaine re-grows best, but I’ve had success with green leaf and red leaf lettuce too.
Got more scraps to regrow food?
There are plenty more vegetables that will regrow using just a small scrap of the original food. These listed below can be started in water, but should be transplanted to dirt for full growth and harvest.
- avocado
- basil
- beets
- cilantro
- ginger
- lemon balm
- mint
- mushrooms
- onions (white/yellow/red)
- parsnips
- pineapple
- potatoes
- rosemary
- sweet potatoes
- turnips
And of course, you can save the seeds/pits from apples, cherries, lemons, nectarines, peaches, peppers (sweet and hot), plums, pumpkins and tomatoes to grow your own new vegetables!
We have several heads of lettuce regrowing on our kitchen table, which makes for a pretty and practical centerpiece! If you had a shelf near a window, you could keep all your plants there and just harvest when they’re big!
Just think – if we did all of the above ways to regrow food, we might not ever have to shop at the grocery store again!
It’s so easy to regrow food in water!
- You’ve worked hard to grow your garden or pinch pennies to afford organics or are doing the best you can with your budget — now it’s time to stretch those dollars even further and grow food in water!
- Start with one of these shallow dishes or these taller dishes. Add in the food stumps (see above for details!). And keep the water fresh.
- Fertilizer could help if you really want to work this system. This Dr. Earth organic liquid fertilizer or a hydroponic fertilizer would work well.
- If regrowing your food in water isn’t your skill set, use those kitchen scraps to make chicken stock!
Need ideas on how to preserve those extra vegetables?
How to Blanch Greens // DIY Celery Powder // How to Keep Fruit (and Vegetables) Fresh Longer
Loretta
I should clarify…I have new growth of celery and lettuce growing, but the original surrounding leaves and stalk are now shriveling and brown and slimy.
Tiffany
That’s normal Loretta – new growth will come from the inside. You can cut those off whenever you’d like. 🙂
Loretta
At what point do you take off the old bottom portion of lettuce or celery that gets brown, dried and slimy? I cut mine today with a scissor. However, when I looked at the bottom (lettuce), there were hairlike roots, so I just put it back in the water. I also had an erroneous stalk growing from my lettuce, so I cut it and put it in a separate bowl of water. I managed to have a small head of lettuce prior to this stalk. Thank you for the idea!
Mia Henderson
i’m in the process of doing this now with Foxy Romaine Lettuce – thus far Success! it’s amazing to see. I am going to add more to the collection! yum!!
Marian
I tried this with leaf lettuce and all I got were thin shoots on the sides. Total failure. What kind of light is required?
Tiffany
I used sunlight Marian, and I’m sorry it didn’t work for you. I encourage you to try again anytime you buy lettuce. There are lots of variables at play here, but you’re only out a few tablespoons of water if it doesn’t work!
Jami
I started some romaine lettuce in some water as directed. Mine has had long stems with leaves coming off them. It doesn’t look anything like the picture. Ideas?
Amy
I do this often and find that some things go straight to seed… Doesn’t give you anything edible, but if it flowers and goes to seed you can grow many of them from the seed and still have paid nothing… Probably need to involve some dirt though. I have don’t this with several different lettuces and now can plant tons of seeds.
Marian
I just started growing my own lettuce. It’s amazing that you can grow these vegetables in water. I will be doing more. Thanks so much for sharing.
Gina
I can’t wait to try this-thanks for sharing! I never knew you could do this!
Brandie
Have you successfully grown a cherry tree from a saved cherry pit? If so what steps did you take?
Tiffany
Not yet Brandie – we don’t own our home… yet!
Ruth
I tried this with Romaine and was excited as it started to grow, and then after two weeks the barely 1″ tall growth started to darken and shrivel.
There was still water in the bowl it was in, it just started to shrink and now of the three leaves it did have only the tallest, the one barely 1″ tall is almost gone.
Thoughts?
Tiffany
I’m not sure Ruth! It’s always worked for me, but it hasn’t always worked for others. My suggestion would be to try again, maybe try more/less sun?
Sandra Viljoen
Hi I would like to know can you grow white or red cauliflower the same way. In fact can you grow anything with a stem like a lettuce or cauliflower like that.
Thank you
Ganjar
I need to start doing something like this, what a creative thinks! awesome
Karen
Love this article! I started a celery about 2 weeks ago and I have a cute little celery bush on my sink. 3 days ago I started a leek the very center leaf has grown at least an inch, the roots are growing too. There are no roots on my celery yet.
Barbara
Love this ! My lettuce is doing great.
My green onions were doing well also, then they began to rot. Where did I go wrong? Suggestions?
Thanks.
susan
Growing veggies in water… When you say put in a small bowl of water, does the mean you submerge it in water or just enough water to cover the base?
Tiffany
Just enough to cover the base. The size of the bowl should be proportionate to the food you’re growing.
John Nichols
Interested in plants that one can grow with water, and water and soil. I live in Manitoba appoximately 2 1/2 hours north of Winnipeg Manitoba.
John
I am presently just starting some celery. The one questions I have is what about nutrients? When plants grow in soil, they must get nutrients. If there are no nutrients added to the water, then they won’t be as “good” as those grown in soil.
Tiffany
Hi John, regrowing food in water isn’t meant to replace the food you’re normally eat long term. It’s just a simple way to get a little bit extra of what you’re already buying. The nutrients might not be as dense or as “good” as you say, but it’ll still be better than half the processed junk on store shelves!
debbie
Don’t forget about photosynthesis! I agree that plants growing inside in water will have less nutrition than the original, in most cases.
But while saying that the plants are not getting many additional nutrients from the water is technically true, the plant is making its own food with nothing more than water, carbon dioxide and sunlight.
Debbie
Melinda
Thank you for these great tips. I have tried planting seeds in my Herb Patch and nothing wants to work – either my gardener pulls them out before they can grow or my cats dig the seeds out when they use my patch for their personal business. I will definitely be giving this a try and putting up some screens around my Herb Patch. Really appreciated. I have joined your site for more informative material. GREAT SITE! Regards Melinda (RSA)
Bryan
Growing food is a closed system. There’s the law of “Conservation of mass” – Matter can not be created or destroyed. Yes, growing these plants is absolutely possible, but just know that the nutrition you get from them is limited to what the plant can absorb. And that’s a lot less when using just water versus planting in a mineral-rich soil (or even using a hydroponic medium). There’s a reason why you have to keep adding compost and/or fertilizer to a garden.
This is surely handy for garnish or for a fresh winter crunch. But don’t expect to live healthily off of plants grown in this manner.
David
Agreed Bryan! In addition to Hydroponics (which uses chemicals) these grow great in an aquaponics system (except for root crops – which grow great in a wicking bed – using water from an aquaponics system works excellent for adding nutrients). I touched on it briefly in a reply above. Basically aquaponics is closed loop eco-system where fish waste provides nutrients for the plants and the plants / pebble beds / filters clean the water for the fish. It is all organic as no chemicals can be added or it will kill the fish. The fish also grow of course which you can eat too! Food grows much faster than soil gardening and it uses significantly less water.
Ruthie
I tried growing carrots in water, and I was pretty excited to see the greens sprouting. I put them in a saucer and added water every time I saw them get low. Roots began growing out of the cut carrot part. The carrot part eventually began turning brown, but the greens were still pretty healthy. Eventually, I took the greens and put them in my soup stock freezer bag collection of scraps. Yet another way to save money! Yippee!